NATO Exercise in Ukraine Coincided with MH-17 Shoot-down

by cuitlahuacrivas

Rapid Trident was omitted from the flurry of coverage on the shoot-down MH-17.

From the U.S. Army in Europe website:

Rapid Trident supports interoperability among Ukraine, the United States, NATO and Partnership for Peace member nations. The exercise helps prepare participants to operate successfully in a joint, multinational, integrated environment with host-nation support from civil and governmental agencies. Rapid Trident is a part of U.S. European Command’s Joint Training and Exercise Program, designed to enhance joint combined interoperability with allied and partner nations. The exercise also supports Ukraine’s Annual National Program to achieve interoperability with NATO and commitments made in the annual NATO-Ukraine work plan.

Rapid Trident included a full range of military exercises. In addition to U.S. troops in Germany and Italy, the exercise included units from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Canada, Georgia, Germany, Moldova, Poland, Romania, the United Kingdom and Ukraine. Liberty Voice reported in March:

Twelve nations will send 1,300 troops to Lviv, a northwestern Ukrainian city near the Polish border. The exercise, called Rapid Trident, is the only military exercise the United States will participate in this year, according to U.S. Army spokesperson Col. Steven Warren, since the U.S. cancelled upcoming Atlas Vision bi-lateral U.S.-Russia military exercises in response to Russia’s actions in regard to Crimea. Atlas Vision had been scheduled to begin in the same month in the northeastern Russian city of Chelyabinsk.